Saturday, June 1, 2013

I do not ordinarily follow events in which male players are the primary focus, but since so many of my favorite player male players participated in this event, I'm reporting on the male players' top results:

Chicago OpenMay 23-27, 2013

The 22nd Annual Chicago Open was held May 23-27, 2013, at the Westin Chicago
North Shore Hotel, 601 North Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling, Illinois.

GMs Ray Robson, Josh Friedel and Nikola Mitkov all finished tied at the top
of the Open Section with 7/9. Robson and Friedel took a quick draw in the final
round to ensure they finished at the top while Mitkov beat overnight leader Alex
Lenderman, who also lost in round 8 to Friedel, to join them. Each player
collected $5833.34 for their efforts while Robson took home an additional $200
bonus for having the best tie-break score of the three. (Below official cross-table of the "Top Ten":)

Yes, there were chess femmes who also played OTB in the Open. I've tried to pick them out - no guarantees I've got them all or have not inadvertently included a male player because I do NOT check each and every player's name with whom I am not familiar, so sorry. None of the ladies finished in the money (Open):

From Archaeology Magazine, World Roundup, May/June 2013 Magazine. (Goddesschess' Random Round-up was a popular feature put together 2, 3 and sometimes even 4 times a month by Don McLean, may he rest in peace, that he worked on tirelessly from April, 2007 until May/June, 2012. Don passed away unexpectedly on October 12, 2012. He was particularly interested in shamanism throughout the world, seeing a common link among all cultures that exhibited shamanistic practices.)

PANAMA: A rock collection represents the earliest known evidence for shamanistic practices in lower Central America. Between 4,000 and 4,800 years old, the group of 12 small pieces of crystal and other stones were found in the back of a rock shelter. Several show abrasions and other signs of use, and all were found in a tight pile, indicating they may once have been in a bag or basket. The belief system behind the cache is not known, but nearby modern indigenous groups also use unusual stones in rituals. —Samir S. Patel

I think this may be a brief report on this story that was reported in January, 2013 at The Huffington Post/Science (yes, The Huffington Post. They post some amazing articles):

Exhibition 25th April - 8th September 2013 Pergamonmuseum, Berlin

In Winter 1912/13 large scale archaeological excavations started in Uruk-Warka (Iraq). Initiated by the German Oriental Society and continued between 1928 and 1939 by the German Research Foundation, the official research permit was transferred by the Iraqi State oard of Antiquities to the German Archaeological Institute in 1954. Ever since Uruk has been the most important archaeological project of the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute in Iraq.

The exhibition „URUK – 5000 years of the Megacity“ presents, for the first time, the results of these excavations to a greater public. Especially for this event a close cooperation was established between the Vorderasiatisches Museum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Museum of the Ancient Near East), the Curt-Engelhorn-Foundation for the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim, the German Oriental Society, Berlin, and the German Archaeological Institute. The exhibition will be on show between 25th April and 8th September 2013 at the Vorderasiatisches Museum (Pergamon-Museum) in Berlin and between 20th October 2013 and 21st April 2014 at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen in Mannheim. On 25th and 26th April 2013 the latest scientific results on Uruk will be discussed in an international colloquium, organized by the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute in cooperation with the German Oriental Society, generously funded by the German Research Foundation.

In the city of Uruk an impressive number of important innovations developed, which still impact our life today. At the end of the 4th millennium BC, the first large urban centre was established along with complex structures for social life and administration. Food supply for a large population and that of everyday equipment, next to water management, distribution of imported goods and knowledge were among the most important functions of the city. The first cuneiform script was invented here, and the Gilgamesh Epic, the oldest epic in the world, shrouded in myth this king of Uruk. Especially in the 4th millennium BC Uruk played an important political role and was cross-linked all over the Ancient Near East. During the following more than 3 000 years the city served as important scientific and religious centre.

„We are delighted to present, for the first time, many 3D-models of the impressive and monumental mud brick architecture of early Uruk – badly preserved when discovered in the excavation. These models were generated by the German Archaeological Institute on the basis of the latest scientific results including high resolution satellite imagery“ says Margarete van Ess, scientific director of the Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute. „The young company artefacts-berlin.de, implemented our ideas technically and graphically and substantially contributed to their visualization.“

More information about the Uruk project is available here.
More information about the exhibition is available here.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Not just an issue in the United States, where 50% of marriages end in divorce year in, and year out, for too many years now. Even when I first started working in the legal field, as a secretary, way back in 1970, the divorce rate had reached 30%. It's only grown worse since then.

Sacred vows have become a joke. When did it become commonplace to just turn our backs on vows because it gets "too hard" or "too boring?"

This really is a world-wide issue now, and it has dire consequences for our collective future, because regardless of how much we like to pretend otherwise, it is still best to raise our children in a stable two-person marriage; and children who are born into "serial monogamy" are affected by our collective actions.

This week, The National reported that in 2006 and 2007, 80% of newlyweds had filed for divorce before completing their first anniversary. This is the most shocking news I have read since joining the newspaper. Many of us have become afraid of the prospects of marriage when hearing about all these divorce stories.In the modern world, when a man asks for a woman’s hand in marriage it is like applying for a job. Previously, families would thoroughly vet the suitor, from his mannerism, religiosity, background, history and relationship with his parents in the same manner as checking references listed on a CV. Unfortunately, old is not gold for the majority. Today, it seems priority is given to certain items on the CV and the rest is simply overlooked.

When people apply for a new job, many of them rarely think about their position and what they wish to achieve in two to five years. Without a roadmap they get bored of their new job after few months and decide to quit. Sadly, the same scenario is befalling most young Emirati couples. Too often, the couple fantasise about their honeymoon, being with their Mr. or Mrs Right for eternity, and they forget to plan ahead. Marriage is not a two- to three-year bond, it is a long lasting relationship which many of us fail to grasp.

There is a misconception that love can conquer all obstacles. This notion works perfectly in a Hollywood or Bollywood love story that lasts a couple of hours and ends in a beautiful union – but it does not apply to real life.

Nor does reaching certain age mean a person is ready to get married.

As a Muslim nation, we are commanded by the Prophet to look for two traits in a spouse: religiosity and mannerism because both go hand-in-hand. Other factors, such as a man’s education and profession, are secondary.

When receiving a proposal, families should not be hasty in their response. Nor should they push their children to marry someone, because eventually it will be the couple’s future children who will bear the consequences, not them.

If we take the time to properly investigate the possible life partners for our children, it could go a long way in cutting down the divorce rate.

BEIJING – Twenty tombs from the Han dynasty (206 B.C-220
A.D.) have been discovered close to Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest
hydroelectric power station, in the southwest Chinese municipality of Chongqing,
the official news agency Xinhua said Saturday.

According to the Chongqing
Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, archaeologists came upon
the burial sites in Ma’anshan on the banks of the Yangtze River in the Fengdu
region.

Discovered inside the tombs were 430 objects, from ceramics to
works in iron and bronze.

The discovery will provide Chinese
archaeologists with important data about the funerary customs, economic
conditions and social structure at the time of the Han dynasty, the source
said.

I read about this before now. How fascinating! Finding hand tools dated, using the most advanced techniques, to 1.5 million years ago in Tamil Nadu. Who do they think made those tools, and where did they come from? Africa across the ocean? From the north? Were they made by another ancient "species" of human (like Neanderthal and Denosovian) that "evolved" independently?

Geologist Robert Bruce Foote, who found a Palaeolithic tool near Chennai on May 30, 1863, classified, catalogued and described his discoveries systematically

One hundred and fifty years ago, on May 30, 1863, young geologist Robert Bruce Foote bent down and picked up a stone tool on the Parade Ground at Pallavaram cantonment, near Chennai. It turned out to be an epochal discovery.

It was a hand-axe made of a hard rock called quartzite. Prehistoric man had crafted it to dig out tubers and roots from the soil, butcher animals he had hunted and take out the meat, and so on. As Foote, then a 29-year old assistant geologist in the Geological Survey of India (GSI), cradled the hand-axe and looked at it transfixed, he recognised it to be a Palaeolithic tool. (Palaeo means old, lith means stone. Prehistory is that part of history before written records began).

At one stroke, his discovery changed the antiquity of humankind who lived in the Indian subcontinent. It put India on the world map of prehistory. Recent research has established that such tools used by Palaeolithic population in India could be dated to 1.5 million years before the present.

Four months after this discovery, on September 28, 1863, Foote and his best friend and colleague in the GSI, William King, made another seminal discovery. They found numerous stone tools, including hand-axes, cleavers and flake tools, at Attirampakkam, near the Kortallayar river, in Tiruvallur district, 60 km from Chennai. Prehistoric man had used them to hunt animals gathering around waterholes and exploit plant and aquatic resources. Foote found some more stone tools later at Pallavaram and was convinced that a Palaeolithic population had lived in India.

Two types of dating done in France at the request of Shanti Pappu and Kumar Akhilesh, specialists in Tamil Nadu’s prehistory, have established that the stone tools found at Attirampakkam could be dated to 1.5 million years. The methods used were paleomagnetic and cosmogenic nuclide burial dating. Dr. Pappu and Dr. Akilesh did this dating as part of their project to study the rich prehistoric archaeology of northern Tamil Nadu, which entailed excavations at Attirampakkam to unravel the prehistoric man’s activities at the site, its environmental context and the age of the stone tools found there.

Foote was a man of multiple interests. He was a geologist, archaeologist, palaeontologist, ethnographer, museologist (one who studies the organisation, management, and function of a museum) and landscape painter. He wisely invested in shares. He was a perfectionist, too.

As Dr. Pappu says in her researched article, ‘Prehistoric Antiquities and Personal Lives: The Untold Story of Robert Bruce Foote,’ published in Man and Environment (Vol.XXXIII, No.1, 2008), “His name is stamped across the pages of India’s geological and archaeological history, and carries as much weight today as it did a century ago… His prolific publications, comprising reports, memoirs, short notes and catalogues of antiquities, his lectures and dialogues with interested individuals, geologists and other scholars, place him amongst the foremost intellectuals of the 19 century… Through the years, literature written by and on Foote helps us gain insights into his personality — as a scientist and scholar, and as a man standing in front of India’s past with a sense of wonder and reverence.”

Foote not only discovered stone tools but also classified, catalogued and described them systematically. He tried to understand the technology that went into their making. He studied whether the tool was made of quartzite, agate, chalcedony or chert (a form of microcrystallite quartz), whether it belonged to Palaeolithic, Neolithic or Iron Age, the stratigraphy (a branch of geology that studies rock layers and layering) and the sedimentary context in which he found it and the geography of the location of the find, said Dr. Pappu.

In sum, he painted a holistic picture of every discovery he made. “He gave the exact locations of the sites where he found the tools and precise directions on how to reach the site. This when there was no Global Positioning System,” said Dr. Akilesh.

For instance, this is how Foote describes his first stone-axe discovery: “The first implement discovered was found by me on the 30 May last year [1863] among the debris thrown out of a small gravel pit a few hundred yards north of the Cantonment at Palaveram (10 miles S.W. of Madras) and about the same distance west from the high road.”

Dr. Akilesh said Foote’s knowledge of the geology of the Indian landscape was amazing. He spoke about the vegetation, animals and fossils found at sites, and made ethnographic observations about them. Foote was the first to discover tiny tools called microliths in the red “teri” sand dunes of Tirunelveli district. He surveyed the famous Billa Surgam caves in Andhra Pradesh and studied the ash-mounds of Karnataka and proved that they were made of burnt cow-dung, Dr. Pappu said.

The Government Museum, Egmore, Chennai, has an eclectic collection of the stone tools Foote found at Pallavaram, Attirampakkam and in the Salem, Baroda and Hyderabad regions. According to R. Kannan, Principal Secretary, Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments Department, the Government of Madras acquired the collection for the Museum for Rs.40,000 in 1904. The Museum has published Foote’s catalogues of his collection of Indian prehistoric and protohistoric antiquities.

Foote was born in England in 1834 and died in December 1912 in Kolkata. He lies buried in the graveyard of the Holy Trinity Church at Yercaud.

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...